Sunday, March 9, 2014

I collaborated with I Heart Girls.com
to create a series of images combining my video game artwork with
photos of models taken by Cherie Roberts, and here's one of them!

This image is the last in the series and the second to feature model Katie Pfeffer. The main thing I had fun with here was the interaction between Katie and the characters. I think more so on this image than the others I was really thinking about unique ways to make that interaction happen, and making it look like a little more was going on than just drawings being added to a photo. Cherie and Katie did an awesome job matching the pose I drew. The characters included are Q*Bert, the hotdog and egg from Burger Time, a crab from Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, and a bug from Galaga.

Here are some progress images:

Something I enjoyed about these progress shots was noticing how much of a difference there was before and after I polished up the arcade cabinet with lighting and shading. I'm pretty happy with the hybrid realistic/illustrated look it has. Rather than single out a specific game I decided to make an "I Heart Girls" cabinet and incorporate some of my favorite design elements from other arcade machines.

Here's the drawing of the girl I did for the side of the machine:

And if you look closely, I added in a nod to local arcade Billy Bob's
Wonderland by including one of their tokens. It's been in my area since I was a kid, and is now one of last
places in the country where you can see the animatronic Rock-afire
Explosion band: